Ceuta marked this Sunday one month since the large influx of migrants into the autonomous city from Morocco with a day of asserting its Spanish identity and citizen protests demanding that the thousands of migrants living in its streets return to their country, as the Government assured would happen in the early hours of the crisis. The closing was marked by a demonstration through the city center attended by about 300 people and which proceeded peacefully. “This is Ceuta, here we have to fight,” chanted the attendees, among whom there were many children and elderly people. Over a kilometer route, from Plaza de África to the Government Delegation headquarters, they demanded the closure of the border with Morocco and asked, “Where is normality?”. At the final gathering, they called for the resignation of the Government delegate, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, and staged his political “death” by observing a minute of silence with their backs to the government building.
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A large number of Ceutans spent much of this sunny Sunday outdoors. At eleven in the morning, they were welcoming with applause and cheers the boats that participated in a nautical parade called “Armada de la Solidaridad”. The event, a civil initiative conceived three weeks ago, was designed as a show of support and solidarity for the city. This Saturday, about fifty boats arrived in the city from different Andalusian ports and today they went out sailing with Spanish and Ceuta flags, playing the Spanish anthem, accompanied by about thirty local boats.
Almost simultaneously, a motorcycle rally toured part of the city waving flags of Spain and Ceuta, also accompanied by the sound of their horns and shouting “Long live Spain”.
The afternoon event was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Plaza de África. In recent days, Ceutans have emphasized the “peaceful” nature of their protests, concerned that their demands might be distorted. They have already spent five days demanding answers about the large entry of 70,000 people who breached their border in just 48 hours and dramatizing the feeling of abandonment they suffer.
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In the first minutes, the protesters were watching broadcasts from television channels or commenting on the morning’s events. When a few minutes remained before eight in the evening, chants began with the slogan “A caballa never surrenders,” referring to the colloquial demonym used by Ceutans.
The protesters took half an hour to reach the Government Delegation headquarters. Along the way, they chanted “Ceuta is not a CETI,” referring to the Temporary Stay Centers for Immigrants; they demanded the expulsion of the “invaders” and claimed “Ceuta is not for sale, it is defended.” The only moments of tension were related to the presence of two young men of Maghrebi appearance, to whom they shouted “out, out” and a scuffle with two other young men who approached the protesters, heckling them, and whom several police officers removed from the route.
After the minute of silence with their backs to the official Government Delegation building, they began to leave, dispersing through the downtown streets, slowly. Before leaving, they gave a small preview of what is to come. “On September 2, Ceuta defends itself,” they claimed, referring to the large protest scheduled for the city’s day.
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